Corona in Berlin: The virus is more likely to catch here than in New York

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Before I came to Germany, I thought that this country had the pandemic under control.

In the US, we are grappling with terrible chaos, wrought by an incompetent government that did not take the pandemic seriously from the start.

In Germany, it seemed to me, everything is under control and people are well guided through this crisis.

But when I walked the streets for the first time a few days ago in Berlin after my self-imposed quarantine, I was shocked.

I live in Prenzlauer Berg and the streets are full.

Hardly anyone here wears a mask outside, which is now taken for granted in New York.

The people there are also much more careful to keep their distance from one another.

You let the other go first, wait for each other.

Here, however, people come very close.

You see crowds of people, small groups meeting to drink mulled wine, talking, and without a mask.

It is true that you are outside.

But in New York it is now common for friends who are chatting outside to keep their masks on - and pull them down when they take a sip of their drink.

I am equally amazed that sales assistants do not have to wear a mask here.

This is mandatory in New York.

Instead, I see plexiglass panes at the supermarket checkouts that are so attached and short that they no longer provide any protection between me and the person in front of me during the payment process when you stand in front of the card machine.

When I recently visited a photography store, the seller stepped out from behind the plexiglass without a mask, stood across from me and advised me for three minutes.

I understand that these people are doing an important job during this crisis and that a mask can be found stressful all day.

But I would assume that they also want to protect themselves.

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I would like to emphasize that New York is also far from over the mountain.

Here, too, the number of infections is high, as in the rest of the USA.

But while people in many other US states have followed very few or no rules at all, most New Yorkers take the many security measures very seriously.

I think this has to do with the fact that at the beginning of the pandemic, New York was hit harder than almost any other place: to this day, people talk about how quiet it was in the city in March and April - and how quiet it was only about the sirens of the emergency cars was interrupted.

I still remember my first walk through my neighborhood and the moment I passed the local hospital: there were several hearses in front of it.

That experience made people aware of the seriousness of the situation and certainly helped them to be very cautious today.

The New Yorkers also have a lot more and more uncomplicated test options than it seems to me here.

The city provides free corona tests for all residents, many of my friends have already had themselves tested several times, regardless of whether they had symptoms or not.

I work as a photographer, and at a lot of shootings it is now mandatory that all participants undergo a corona test beforehand.

Now that I'm here, I'm very insecure.

Sure, the United States has catastrophically high infection rates, but things are not going in the right direction here either.

A friend recently wrote to me that it must be nice to be in Germany now.

To be honest, I have the feeling that I could be more infected with Covid here than in New York.

In any case, I keep my mask on on the street.

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Protocol: Silvia Ihring

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